Hold Fast Forever

 DEVOTION

JOSHUA

HOLD FAST FOREVER

Josh 23:1-8

23:1 After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, 2 summoned all Israel — their elders, leaders, judges and officials — and said to them: "I am old and well advanced in years. 3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain — the nations I conquered — between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west. 5 The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you. 6 "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.

NIV

As with all men, Joshua is old and advanced in years. His exact age is not of consequence, but his words to all of Israel, with their elders, leaders, judges, and officials are. We do wonder how all of Israel would have been able to gather and how long it would have taken for them to travel from all over the land to this one place so Joshua could speak to all of them. Maybe it was just all the leaders, but, nevertheless, what is important is the charge Joshua gave them. Once again we see it is the LORD their God, who is the same Lord, our God, who will drive out all the people before them so they may take full possession of the promised land. However, Joshua also warned them to, “Be very strong” and He tells them, and this is where our lesson for today is, to be careful to obey all the laws, without turning aside to the right or to the left. There were people living among them who had other gods and Israel was not to invoke the names of those other gods and not associate with those nations. We have people living among us who serve other gods, we should not even invoke their names. Interestingly, that Hebrew word translated as invoke, carries the meaning, to remember, to recall, to call to mind. That would mean that we should not only never speak the name of any god of this world, but we should not even think about them, or recall who they are. That is we are to completely, one hundred percent ignore them, not even remember who they are. Now, by faith, we know the Lord our God will drive them out before us, which would include driving them out of our minds. However, there is always the danger of bowing down to some god of this world without even knowing that is what we are doing. We know the schemes of the evil one are sly or sneaky, full of illusions and deceptions, smoke and mirrors, to coin a phase. We must be vigilant, and not get distracted by all the glitter.   However, if we hold fast, or cling, to the Lord our God, we have nothing to worry about because we cannot, or at least, should not even attempt to serve two masters. Holding fast to our Lord would imply letting go of the ways of this world, its ideologies, and its worship of materialism based on its worship and obedience to money, success, and power, along with a host of other gods. We cannot serve those things and serve our Lord at the same time. We cannot turn to the right or the left but fully have our focus on the Lord and his will for our lives. Of course, our Lord will provide all that we need in this world to live according to his will. Our calling is to follow Jesus, follow the light that he has shone on the path before us. This road is narrow and straight, so turning aside to the right or left would be fatal. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but it is still widely paved, easy to travel, and leads to destruction. Let us not even consider turning either way, but faithfully serve our Lord only, the one true way to life. Let us hold fast forever.